Life in the borderland

November 20, 2005

Vikasana

I am in Bangalore now. I came here primarily to visit with some alternative schools. Having taught at an alternative school in the US, I have been intrigued to know about alternative education in India. Given that Indian culture tends to be conservative, I have been skeptical of alternative education in India. To my surprise, I am learning that alternative approaches are rapidly increasing in India. The effort is coming from educationists and social workers that have a background in Indian philosophy and a sense of desperation around the poor quality of modern Indian education. By most standards, modern Indian education is no different from modern education in any other part of the world. That is the problem.

Today, I visited Vikasana. The school was closed so I wanted to take the opportunity to meet with the founder before I see the school in session tomorrow. Malati (or Malati akka, roughly translated to older sister Malati, as most people call her) is the heart and soul of Vikasana. Malati started Vikasana over 25 years ago. She was a student of David Horsburg, a pioneer in alternative education. It was David’s wish that his students would go on to start schools based on his approach. Malati did just that.

Vikasana is a school for poor children of local farmers. Today the school has 40 children between the ages of 3-16. They come to school before 9 am and leave after 5 pm. Some of the children walk as many as 5 miles one way to get to the school. They learn in groups of similar aged children, each group led by one teacher. The school has 4 teachers other than Malati and so there are 4 groups. The education is free and the school relies on donations from organizations like Asha. The children are required to bring their own writing books, pencils and a lunch.

The curriculum taught is open and flexible. It is academically oriented but the approach is unique. As Malati says, the goal is to expose children to the knowledge that exists in the world but to do it in a way that makes it relevant to them. There is no point in teaching a child to do addition if she doesn’t know how addition is useful and relevant to her. Further, the idea is to help children develop their own learning capacity and style with the material being taught serving only to spark their inner learning approach.

All of this seems to be possible because of who Malati is and the kind of space Vikasana is located in. Malati is energetic, very intelligent and tuned into understanding the workings of her own thought processes especially the tricky nature of the human ego. She is simple, open and full of love. She seems to believe that love alone can teach. Her years of dedication and work at Vikasana are testimony to this. Vikasana started in a single cottage-like structure that Malati, David Horsburg and the students built. They added another structure that serves as Malati’s home. The structures are made from local fire-kilned clay bricks, finished with soil from ant hills and cow dung. The roofs are made with clay tiles. They look like single room cottages. They are small (about 12x10 feet) using only as much land as needed, thus leaving the natural vegetation around intact. About 5 structures exist now, several of which have been built by the students themselves. One structure is particularly unique – is a short dome – about 6 feet high and 8 feet in diameter, built from mud and bricks. It was built as part of an experiment for the children to learn how to build a dome using the least amount of money possible. They got Rs. 260 ($5) for it. The completed structure has been in place for 8 years now. The outside is decorated by the children using stones, glass pieces and waste materials. Today, the inside is used by the children to eat their lunch (on a rainy day) and play. All of the school cottages are cleaned and maintained by the students. I was curious how willing the students are about cleaning. Malati told me that they cannot seem to wait to clean, especially on Fridays when they do their big weekly clean up. That seems unbelievable to me. Malati says that it seems to happen that way because that is just what they do at that time on Friday and everyone does it, including her. She also says that the students appreciate returning on Monday to a clean classroom. It is my guess that it also works because each student group has a cottage for their use. They must feel a sense of belonging to that space.

The space between structures is filled with local vegetation and place for animals. Dogs, cats, monkeys and at one point rabbits and tortoises inhabited. The grounds also house a water well and a tall ant hill. Malati has worked hard to leave the space as she found it and to let nature take its course.

I spent about 2 hours with Malati. We talked on the philosophy of education, in particular what she does at Vikasana. She showed me the space and told me of the children. Tomorrow, I will return to see the school in session. As you might guess, I just cannot wait …